Cabinet for refreshening biscuits, rolls and the like



Feb; 13, 1

93 w. A. BROUILLET, SR

CABINET FOR REFRESHENING BISCUITS, ROLLS; AND THE LIKE Filed Feb. 5,195..

5 Sheets-Sheet 1 gwuentoi CABINET FOR REFRESHENING BISCUITS, ROLLS, ANDTHE LIKE Filed Feb. 5, 1951 s Sheefs-Sheec .2

glwwmtoc e 34- w. A. BROUILLET, SR 1,946,963

AND THE LIKE ROLLS,

CABINET'FOR REFRESHENING BISCUITS Filed Feb. 5, 1951 5 Sheets-Sheet 3gwmantoz Patented Feb. 13,1934

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CABINET ron REFRESHENING BISCUITS,

ROLL

SANDTHELIKE Thisinvention relates to devices for reheating andrefreshening rolls, biscuits or the like breadstuffs. Biscuits, rolls orother like breadstufis, when baked, must be used at once or they willget 5 hard and dry out. It is an ordinary practice to attempt torefreshen biscuits for reheating by placing the biscuits in a slightlymoistened bag or "something of this nature and subjecting the biscuitsor rolls to the heat of an oven. This, however, does not render thebiscuit or roll fresh but tends rather to unduly moisten the roll orhiscuit without, however, taking away from the hardness or dryness ofthe biscuit or roll except in spots where usually there is too muchmoisture.

The general object of the present invention is to provide a steamchamber for the purpose of reheating and refreshening rolls or biscuitwhich is so constructed that the steam itself does not come :0 incontact with the biscuits, thus making them soggy but in which thebiscuits or rolls are subjected to the heat of the steam.

A further object is to provide means within the cabinet for carryingaway any condensed mois- 26 ture.

A further object is to provide means whereby the condensed steam may becarried back to the water'pan which is disposed in the base of thecabinet.

l0 Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:-

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a refreshening l5 cabinet constructedin accordance with my invention;

Figure 2 is a top plan view but with the top of the outer casing orchamber removed;

Figure 3 is a vertical section on the line 3-3 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a section on the line 44 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a vertical section parallel to the front wall of the cabinetand Figure 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of one corner of thecasing showing the guides for the drawers.

Referring to these drawings, 10 designates the outer wall of this steamchamber or cabinet which is preferably formed of metal, though any othersuitable material might be used. This outer wall defines a rectangularchamber and the top of this chamber is closed by a cover 11 which may beeither united to the walls 10 of the chamber or made so that it may beremovable. This top wall 56 is provided with the steam vent 12. Adjacentthe lower ends of the side walls and adjacent the lower end of the backwall, there is disposed downwardly extending deflecting flange 13. Belowthis flange the side walls and back wall are formed with the inwardlyextending flange 14 upon which the water pan 15 is adapted to besupported.

This water pan isrelatively shallow and slides in upon the flanges .14,the front wall of the water pan being laterally extended so as to closeany opening through which steam might pass.

Disposed within the outer wall 10 and below the top 11 of the chamber orcabinet is an interior casing 16 into which no steam can pass. Thisinterior casing is formed with a plurality of pairs of inwardlyextending flanges 17, there being two pairs of these flanges on eachside wall of the casing 16 and constituting guides for sliding drawers.The front 18 of the casing is formed with a plurality of openings 19,one for each of the sliding drawers, the upper and lower flanges 1'7 ofeach pair coinciding with the upper and lower margins of these openings.Extending between each pair of flanges 17 is a longitudinally extendingseptum or web 20 disposed inward of the outer wall 16 of the casing andcoinciding with the ends of the openings 19. The webs 20 extend downwardin spaced relation to the wal1.16 so that a space or longitudinallyextending passage 21 is formed between each web 20 and the correspondingside wall 16.

The flanges 17 immediately above and below each passage 21 are formedwith a plurality of perforations 22. The bottom 23 of the casing 16 is,of course, disposed above the water pan 15 and the top 24 of the casing16 is disposed below 90 the top 11. Disposed upon this top 24 arepreferably two outwardly and forwardly extending deflectors 25 whichconverge at their rear ends.

Each of the drawers 26 is rectangular in plan view and is justsufliciently wide to slide in through the openings 19 and to rest uponthe flanges 1'7 and slide freely between the webs 20.

The outer end of each drawer is laterally extended as at 27 so as to fitover the margin of the corresponding opening 19 and having practically asteam-tight engagement therewith.

The lower end of the outer casing or chamber may be supported upon legs28 or in any other suitable manner and is designed to be disposed over agas burner or any other source of heat.

In the operation of this device, the pan 14 is filled with water. Theheat generates steam from this pan of water and steam rises and heatsthe inner easing of the inner chamber and thus heats the biscuits, rollsor other breadstufis whichare disposed within the drawers without actingto dry out the rolls or biscuits. Any moisture which may arise from therolls or biscuits condenses on the top wall 24 and iscarried laterally,passes down through the perforations 22 and so on down to the bottom 23.On its passage downward through the perforations 22 or when it reachesthe bottom 23 this moisture is again vaporized, carried upward andtransmitted to the breadstuff so that moisture is not really dried outfrom the rolls or biscuits. Furthermore, inasmuch as the pan 15 is inthe form of a drawer, some steam will escape at the point where thefront of the pan laps over the casing and this steam rises on theoutside of the front wall and comes in contact with the front of thelowermost biscuit drawer 26 which is colder than the steam. Thisprevents a vapor from condensing on the inside of the front plate of thebiscuit drawer. If the rolls or biscuits were placed in the cabinet andthe steam turned into the biscuit drawers, this would give them entirelytoo much moisture but the water vapor which forms within the biscuitdrawers is just sufiicien't to provide for proper moistening of thebreadstufis.

The webs 20 may extend the full length of the cabinet, if desired, thatis, the full length of the inner compartment as these webs simply formguides and the flanges keep the drawers from going up or down. Theperforations 22 at the top and bottom of the webs and flanges are forthe purpose of securing an even distribution of heat, that is, to letthe heat circulate all around the drawers and carry away condensationthrough the bottom of the inner cabinet or casing. I do not wish to belimited to the exact forms of the webs 20 with the guides 1'7 and theperforations 22 as these can be changed to suit any requirements andwithout in any way interfering with the proper working of the cabinetand without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in theappended claims.

The deflector wings 25 on top of the inner compartment and below the topof the outer compartment are so spaced that the steam will be forced totravel around them to the vent hole 12. This deflector 25, therefore,acts to slow up the steam and secure a more even heating for thecabinet.

My refreshener has been tried under service conditions and it has beenfound that it revives or refreshens biscuits so that they may be usedand will have the quality of fresh biscuits even forty-eight hours afterbaking, making these biscuits moist, fluffy and light. Steam is entirelykept out of the inside section of the cabinet and simply acts to reheatthe biscuits. At the same time the moisture that is driven off from thebiscuits is heated and rises again to form a dampv atmosphere around thebiscuit or roll which gives it just the proper moisture to make it lightand fluffy. The steam itself, of course, is condensed and flows down theside wall on the inside face of the outer casing and the strips 13 actto deflect this condensate back into the pan.

While I have illustrated a preferred form of my invention, I do not wishto be limited thereto as obviously many details may be changed withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention.

Thus two or more drawers may be used or less than two depending entirelyupon the circumstances in which this device is used.

I claim:'

1. A cabinet for refreshening breadstuifs comprising an outer casinghaving openings in its front wall, an inner casing having its side wallsabutting the front wall but spaced at its sides, bottom and top, fromthe like walls of the outer casing, the inner casing being imperforate,pairs of flanges extending out from the side walls of the inner casingand forming guides, drawers insertible through the openings in the frontwall of the outer casing on to said guides and fitting between the pairsof guides, webs extending inward from the openings of the front wall andextending between said guides and spaced from the lateral walls of theinner casing to form passages, the flanges defining the tops and bottomsof said passages being apertured whereby moisture evaporated from thebreadstuffs in the drawers may be carried downward through said passagesand condensed therein and discharged upon the floor of the inner casing.A i

2. A cabinet for refreshening breadstufis comprising an outer casinghaving openings in its front wall, an inner casing having its side wallsabutting the front wall but spaced at its sides. bottom and top, fromthe like walls of the outer casing, the inner casing being imperforate,pairs of flanges extending out from the side walls of the inner casingand forming guides, drawers insertible through the openings in the frontwall of the outer casing on to said guides and fitting between the pairsof guides, webs extending inward from the openings of the front wall andextending between said guides and spaced from the lateral walls of theinner casing to form pas-' sages, the flanges defining the tops andbottoms of said passages being apertured whereby moisture evaporatedfrom the breadstufis in the drawers may be carried downward through saidpassages and condensed therein and discharged upon the floor of theirmer casing, the top of the irmer casing being formed with deflectorsextending forward and divergently to cause the condensed steam to bedischarged downward in said outer casing, the top of the outer casingbeing provided with a vent aperture.

3. A cabinet of the character described, comprising an outer casing,having a front wall, side walls and back wall, the side walls extendingdown below the back wall and being provided with longitudinallyextending guides and above these guides having downwardly extendingdeflectors, a water pan adapted to be supported by said guides andremovable from the front of the casing, an inner casing smaller than anddisposed in spaced relation to the rear and side walls of the outercasing, but abutting against the front wall of the outer casing, flangesextending outward from the side walls of the outer casing butterminating short thereof and constituting guides alining with the upperand lower margins of the openings in the front wallv of the outercasing, vertical webs extending from' the front wall of the outer casingnearly to the rear wall of the inner casing and disposed between saidpairs of guides, and drawers insertible through the front walls of theouter casing on to said guides and between said webs, the guides betweenthe webs and the side walls of the outer casing being formed withapertures.

4. A cabinet for refreshening breadstufis comprising an outer casinghaving openings in its front wall, an inner casing having side wallsabutting the front wall but spaced from its sides, bottom and top fromthe like walls of the outer casing, the irmer casing being imperforate,means extending outward from the side walls of the inner casing to formguides, drawers insertible through the openingsin the front wall of theouter casing on to said guides, and a water pan disposed in the bottomof said outer casing, the] water pan having the form of a. drawerinsertible through the front wall of the outer casingand the front wallof the water pan being formed to discharge steam generated thereinupward

